Chief Mike Heiland of the Long Lake Fire Department (LLFD) has finished visiting the City Councils of the four cities (Long Lake, Medina, Minnetonka Beach, and Orono) served by the LLFD to provide presentations of the LLFD 2023 Annual Report. Chief Heiland began serving as LLFD’s Chief in March 2023 and he has brought a fresh perspective and outside ideas to the department. The LLFD had many accomplishments in 2023, highlights of which include:
- Responded to 507 calls for service, which is a 17% increase as compared to 2022.
- Provided 7,673 call hours to our cities as well as mutual aid partners
- Started a new duty crew program in which firefighters volunteer to work four (4) hour shifts in which they are on standby at a fire station ready to respond to calls. A total of 469 shifts were filled between August (when the program began) and December.
- Purchased and began wearing professional duty uniforms for members to wear while on shift and at department meetings and events
- Completely updated all medical bags
- Began performing hose testing with duty crew personnel vs. using an outside vendor, which is a cost-savings
- Using City of Long Lake and/or Fire Relief Association funds, placed orders for new equipment and vehicles, including:
- A new rescue vehicle, which will arrive later this summer
- A new command vehicle
- An engine from the Excelsior Fire District
- Six new portable radios
- High-quality CPR dummies to improve training at community events
- A new forcible entry training door
- A battery-operated combi-tool/jaws of life
- Two new fire blankets for extinguishing electrical vehicle fires
In addition, after accomplishing all of the above, Chief Heiland, his leadership team, and City of Long Lake staff collaborated to end the year under budget. The total operating expenses for the LLFD to provide fire protection services to all four cities in 2023 was $660,155. Coming in under budget allowed Long Lake to issue a refund of $32,759 to Orono and $1,924 to Medina. That resulted in Orono’s share of the operating budget dropping to $543,963, for example.
We thank the over 40 dedicated members of the LLFD for all of their hard work in 2023 to serve our community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as for their continued service!
If you are interested in serving your community as a member of the LLFD, please visit this webpage for more information.
